Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, was on Face the Nation this morning and something didn’t seem quite right. After nearly 30 years of a steady diet of red power ties on Sunday morning talk shows, there he was in a power blue tie.

Then I realized, it’s not an accident. Check the lineup from Friday’s Obama news conference:

And I can’t quite tell from this picture of Friday’s news conference by Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s Secretary of State, on Mary Lahammer’s excellent blog, but from a distance, isn’t that a bluish tie?

Ritchie popped up on KSTP today on Tom Hauser’s show (which I believe is taped) and we have not one, but two power blues.

On Meet the Press, meanwhile, House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn was sending a bipartisan message.

Perhaps last week’s election was the first part of the men’s department stimulus package.

Update Mon. 11/10 4:35 p.m. – President-elect Obama met President Bush at the White House today, and injected new life into the blue-tie theory.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started the two most popular blogs in the history of MPR and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories but reflections , observations, and debate.